Margin Call: NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet at centre of punter lobby pressure

Former Senator Stephen Conroy is now head of Responsible Wagering Australia. (Aaron Francis/The Australian)

The Liberal-Labor dream team of online gambling, Nick Minchin and Stephen Conroy, are in full swing at their lobby Responsible Wagering Australia.

Their target: 35-year-old NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, suddenly a powerful figure in the lives of the two former senate lions, and one each has lobbied in recent months.

As Responsible Wagering Australia’s chair and executive director, respectively, Minchin and Conroy are trying to reduce the size of the point of consumption tax Gladys Berejiklian’s NSW Coalition government will soon impose on their online gambling members.

Championing a higher rate is the online gamblers’ Paula Dwyer-chaired, $9 billion rival Tabcorp, which is also furiously lobbying the NSW government. A higher rate would slug Tabcorp’s online competitors.

Minchin was first into Perrottet’s office. The Treasurer’s ministerial diary shows the meeting took place on March 26, only a month after former Howard government finance minister joined the lobbying outfit after a stint as Australia’s Consul-General in New York.

Two days after Minchin’s softening up, Margin Call understands Conroy arrived at Perrottet’s with representatives from his various members: Matt Tripp’s Crownbet, Barni Evans’s Sportsbet, along with Ladbrokes, Australia Betfair and Unibet.

Providing a bit of blue support, Conroy (who we understand was wearing his lucky red underpants, this being an important meeting) also brought along former NSW Liberal leader Kerry Chikarovski, who has been brought on as a lobbyist to assist the Melbourne-based Responsible Wagering as it navigates the local quirks of Macquarie Street.

The new point of consumption tax will plug a tax loophole facilitated by the pliant Northern Territory, the lightly taxing location at which the nation’s online gambling outfits are licensed.

Despite its public claims to the contrary, Responsible Wagering Australia had a big win in Conroy’s Labor factional stomping ground of Victoria, currently under the management of Labor Premier Daniel Andrews.

Andrews’s government last month broke with its state peers and imposed a point of consumption tax on gambling at only 8 per cent, almost half the 15 per cent imposed in South Australia and the ACT. Western Australia and Queensland have both indicated they are looking at a 15 per cent rate, albeit with caveats.

Perrottet will deliver the NSW budget on June 19.

His tax decision — which he has said could range from 8 to 15 per cent — could be announced on budget day. Or before budget day. Or after budget day.

Either way, it won’t be long till we find out how effective the Minchin-Conroy tag team has been north of the border.

Read the full Margin Call column tomorrow in print and online.